Kenya’s Bonds Fall After Odinga Formally Challenges Election Results – Tradeweb Data

LONDON, Aug 23 – Kenya’s Eurobonds fell on Monday after veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga formally challenged the results of this month’s presidential election at the country’s Supreme Court.

The country’s dollar-denominated government bonds were down as much as 2 cents on the dollar at 1318 GMT, with the 2048 maturity trading at 68.5 cents, according to Tradeweb data.

Last week, Kenya’s election commissioner declared Deputy President William Ruto had won the election against Odinga by a slim 50.49%-48.5% margin, but four out of seven election commissioners dissented, saying the tallying of results had not been transparent. 

“We take some comfort that nobody in Kenya is calling for violence or storming the parliament in Nairobi but it is really a country that needs to put the election behind it,” said Carl Ross, a partner at investment firm GMO.

He said investors had hoped there would be a more obvious winner in the presidential vote.

“It (Kenya) is a strong, vibrant democracy and that is a good thing. But when countries are apparently split right down the middle it makes governing them difficult.”